The Birthday Present
by MobBob
Summary: Set during Season 2: It's Angie's birthday and her best friend is on the other side of the country. Things change when she receives a package in the mail.


Angie looked at the phone. She knew she shouldn't. Peggy was probably busy right now catching spies and saving innocents. She didn't have the time to talk to her friend and wish her a happy birthday or even send her a card. She understood that. Yet, that didn't change the fact that Angie missed Peggy. She missed hearing her stories about life as a spy. She missed laying next to her in bed. She missed having someone who was there for her.

When Peggy told her she was leaving, she'd assured Angie that she'd be back in time for her birthday. She promised she'd bring her back a suitcase full of souvenirs and would tell her about all the famous people she'd met. Now it was her birthday, Peggy was nowhere to be seen, and Angie was all alone. The only person who had wished her a happy birthday was her mom, who'd called her early that day. She'd spent most of the call asking how she was doing and asking if she'd received the card she sent her. Angie lied and said she'd got it. She tried to keep her mother on as long as she could, but eventually she had to hang up. That was the only person Angie had contact all day. Maybe she could try visit the Griffith and see if her friends were still there, but she doubted it would work. Mrs. Fry had been suspicious of her, believing Peggy's troublemaking streak had rubbed off on her. She probably wouldn't let her anywhere near her hotel, for fear of corrupting her girls. Thus, Angie would be celebrating her twenty-fourth birthday all by herself.

It didn't help that Peggy had been a bit distant before leaving for Los Angeles. She'd come back from a mission to Maine and seemed aloof, like there was something she didn't want to talk about. Angie figured it had something to do with Dottie. Peggy had told Angie that the SSR was hot on the heels of the woman who called herself Dottie Underwood. Though she didn't say it, it was clear that Peggy was obsessed with capturing the woman who'd spent months infiltrating her life. Truth be told, so was Angie.

Ever since she realized that the woman who'd been her roommate was a spy, Angie was scared. As giddy as she was when she first found out Peggy was a spy, the excitement soon turned to other, more unpleasant emotions. Angie breathed a sigh of relief when she heard Dottie had been captured, glad she didn't have to worry about that madwoman showing up at her door. However, this feeling of safety disappeared when she found out Peggy would be leaving her for an undetermined amount of time. It wasn't like there was anyone she could go to and talk about her problems. She couldn't just go to confession and say, "Father, I've been sharing my bed with a spy who works for a top secret government agency and now I'm worried that I'm gonna be a target. Also, the spy is a woman."

It was at this point that Angie decided that she should probably do something to take her mind off of Dottie. Maybe she should check the mail. It probably would have come by now. Her mother's card might even be there. She walked downstairs to her front door and found some letters just below the mail slot. She picked them up and then checked outside. There she saw a package sitting on the welcome mat. Had Peggy remembered her birthday? She picked it up and quickly went inside.

She went to the living room and placed the letters on a desk and sat herself down in an armchair, resting the package on her lap. She inspected it. It was wrapped in brown paper, with a thin piece of twine holding it together. There was a pink envelop on top of it. Angie opened it, finding a card inside of it. The card had a picture of a cake on it underneath yellow lettering that said "Happy Birthday."

Angie opened the card finding a note inside:

 _Dear Angie,_

 _You didn't think I'd forget your birthday, did you? I've never really been good at expressing myself and I've always felt distant with other people. I'm going to speak from the heart. Though you may not have realized it, but I did enjoy our time at the Griffith. In spite of Mrs. Fry's strictness, or maybe because of it, I felt like we were one big family. I got you this as a reminder of our time there. I hope you think of me every time you look at it._

Angie reread the message a few times. The handwriting looked like Peggy's, though it could have been someone else. Peggy didn't really strike her as being too sentimental. She decided to open the present. She undid the twine knot and removed the brown wrapping to reveal a box. Angie shook the box a bit, but didn't hear a sound. She then placed it on a coffee table and looked at it for a moment, wondering what was inside of it. She gingerly lifted the lid off the box and peaked inside it. She saw it was filled with rolled up newspapers. Angie pulled them out until she reached the bottom and found a picture frame that had been placed facedown.

Angie picked it up and turned it around, eager to see what picture Peggy put inside the frame. However, as soon as she turned the frame around, she quickly dropped it and fell back into the armchair. The frame bounced on the carpet for a bit before settling down. It landed upward, showing the photo of Angie, Peggy and...and Dottie, standing on the pier of Coney Island. Angie was curled up in the chair. "They caught her. They caught her. She sent this weeks ago. There's no way she's free."


End file.
